there's a vote under way for hagel in terms of secretary of defense. what do we know? >> reporter: that's right. under way as we speak. this is a vote to end the republican filibuster on chuck hagel's nomination to be the next secretary of defense. ten days ago we had the same exact vote and it failed. republicans, enough republicans blocked it so that the filibuster continued. but democrats in the white house only needed one more vote and we think that that is there, at least one more vote. so we believe at the end of this vote, which has approximately ten minutes left, chuck hagel will -- the way will be cleared for him to be secretary of defense. unclear if they'll have a final vote today or wait until tomorrow. but we're watching this to see exactly how it goes down. but one thing we did hear before this started was the republicans who are ardently opposed to him say that even if he is nominated, which i think he will be, he will be too battered and bruised to be an effective secretary of defense. they did one last at least public ask of the president to withdraw h